All Forum Posts by: Jennifer Bennett

Don't advise trying to time the market. If you lived in and owned for 2 of the last 5 years, and you anticipate seeing any gain (up to $250k per spouse) you would be advised to sell before you lose the opportunity to use the primary residence exclusion to capital gains tax on those gains. Just my 2 cents.

Congrats on your first one! Be sure you have written down what you minimum criteria is that you will screen applications with and use this with every one. In fact, give it to everyone interested in home. I like national tenant network, & I'm about to try their SecureLease option on my upcoming rental. Which service isn't as important as you knowing what your criteria is, sticking to it, and VERIFY everything on the application. Call employers, prior landlords etc. I have on my application that I don't rent to liars :). When showing the property, I want everyone to apply. When verifying, I'm checking every item to see if they lied. Different hats good luck!

I agree with George P. You have to get help, from family, friends etc. If you truly want to do a thing, you find a way to make it happen. If you are a parent, then you already realize this :). I have also taken my children with me to view properties (they all know that smelly houses mean money!) and to do some of the rehab. We are currently all working on a turnover together rather than pay a maid to do it and make them come back 3x. Lol! It does get easier as they get older, but my oldest was 6 when we started and I had stair stepped little right after her. Prioritizing and carving out focused time to work on real estate (when they are sleeping or with daddy is how I did it. Hope that helps! You can do this mommy!

I used to use Postlets, now Zillow Rental Manager (?). It allows you to post pics & info on property for free & it saves it for next time you need to list it. It then posts the ad to a bunch of different sites. Always got great responses from this, especially this time of year. 

I have done it both ways. I have fielded calls and funneled everyone towards one of my 2 weekly open houses (tell everyone next available time to view is 1-3 Saturday). This saves me time and effort (not dealing with no-shows etc). Recently, I've enlisted realtors who are willing to do the showing for lease-up. I'm still doing verification which allows me to keep one of the most important parts of the business in my control. I've had good success with this option & it usually costs around 40-50% first month's rent. Shop around. The key here is to price in management (10%) when running numbers on a deal. Even if you plan to self manage. Situations change in life and you shouldn't have to depend on you to make your rental investment work. Hope that helps!

It depends on whether we are talking SFH or MF on some of this. All: Change the locks before the next tenant moves in. Just good practice. For my SFH in Texas, it is my tenant's responsibility to change filters & change batteries in smoke detectors. I tell them to change filter each time they pay rent. I make sure they have new batteries installed at beginning of tenancy & encourage them to change them each time they change their clocks. I encourage them to get a fire extinguisher as this helps in lowering renter's insurance, which I require. In MF, traditionally, you don't expect the tenant to handle ANY maintenance, so filters, batteries etc would be a management thing.

If you don't have private money relationships cultivated yet, hard money is a good way to open up opportunities for you to close quickly on the purchase. I highly recommend Mike Hanna with Investmark Mortgage. He helped us get into our first property. He is knowledgable & I appreciate his integrity and honesty. Love me some BRRRR! Even before Brandon coined that acronym :)

As mentioned previously, there are two ways to go about proving/disproving the eviction. 1) Verify the address/owner/manager of property applicant claims to have lived during time period of eviction & get written evidence from landlord that applicant was residing there. 2) Send a written request to landlord/owner/manager involved in eviction to verify that this applicant is NOT the same as one in eviction (I ask if last 4-5 digits of ssn match their records). This takes some extra effort and sleuthing & doesn't always get results, but if I can clear an eviction from the record before another application is approved, I do. Of course, passing & making applicant prove non-eviction is easier on you

As mentioned previously, there are two ways to go about proving/disproving the eviction. 1) Verify the address/owner/manager of property applicant claims to have lived during time period of eviction & get written evidence from landlord that applicant was residing there. 2) Send a written request to landlord/owner/manager involved in eviction to verify that this applicant is NOT the same as one in eviction (I ask if last 4-5 digits of ssn match their records). This takes some extra effort and sleuthing & doesn't always get results, but if I can clear an eviction from the record before another application is approved, I do.

I'm going through the same thing right now except I have a few extra wrinkles. Mine is a stay at home mom who has no income. On top of that husband gave notice of intent to vacate before she knew about it. They are M2M, and according to the lease if either one commits them to leave, they are all committed to leave. Totally sucks for her, but at least I know I won't have to evict her for nonpmt. I have ability to turn around and re-lease. Wish I had a resource to point her to to help her and her 3 kids.